Amid growing concerns over Pakistan’s water crisis, a Pakistani senator on Friday issued a desperate appeal to the Shehbaz Sharif government to urgently “defuse” the “water bomb” threatening the country after India suspended the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in the wake of the deadly Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, which killed 26 civilians.

Senator Syed Ali Zafar, speaking in a Senate session, emphasized the urgency of the situation, warning that Pakistan would face extreme hardship if the water crisis was not resolved. “We would die of hunger if we don’t resolve the water crisis now. The Indus Basin is our lifeline as three-fourths of our water comes from outside the country, nine out of 10 people depend on the Indus water basin for their living, as much as 90 percent of our crops rely on this water and all our power projects and dams are built on it. This is like a water bomb hanging over us and we must defuse it,” Zafar stated.

The Indus Water Treaty, signed in 1960, governs the sharing of waters from six rivers—Indus, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej—between India and Pakistan.

Pakistan has been urging India to reconsider its decision to suspend the treaty. In recent weeks, high-level officials, including the National Security Committee (NSC) and Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, have made statements condemning the move. However, India has made it clear that the treaty will remain suspended until Pakistan “credibly and irrevocably” ceases its support for cross-border terrorism.

India’s decision to pause the treaty followed the Pahalgam terror attack, marking the first time New Delhi has taken such an action. The Indian government emphasized its commitment to national security, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi underscoring that “water and blood cannot flow together” and “terror and talks cannot happen at the same time.”

As India launched Operation Sindoor, Prime Minister Modi reiterated India’s position, stating that any future discussions regarding Jammu and Kashmir would only address Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Modi also made it clear that Pakistan would not receive any Indian water unless it ceases its support for terrorism and relinquishes its illegal occupation of Kashmir.

“I would also like to underline that any bilateral discussion on Jammu and Kashmir will only be on the vacation of illegally-occupied Indian territory by Pakistan. On the question of the Indus Waters Treaty, I am again repeating myself, it will remain in abeyance until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism,” said Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal.

The ongoing tension surrounding the Indus Water Treaty highlights the complex and critical relationship between India and Pakistan, with the looming threat of a water crisis exacerbating the geopolitical challenges facing the two nations.